Course Description
This is an introductory course to literary studies, focusing on the practical methodological issues of how to undertake independent research, deciding on a topic, and writing up a polemic essay. After a summary explanation of existing critical approaches in the first 1/3 of the semester, the course then settles on familiarizing students with the required skills of undertaking literary studies by detailed lecturing, pertinent assignments, and, most importantly, close reading of sample essays of contemporary criticism. Another important component of this course, which will vary each time it is offered, is that a novel or an author’s work will be chosen as the common object of reading and studying in class so that a very concrete knowledge of one particular literary work or author will also be attained not only in itself but also as illustration of all those methodological undertakings.